


You'll Be My Living Legacy

by Galaticx



Series: Collecting Names of the Lives That Went Wrong [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Unbeta'd, if i think of anything else important i'll tag it, some fluff here and there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26507281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaticx/pseuds/Galaticx
Summary: Modern AU; reincarnated in the future where Shinra is no more, and their past lives are long since over, Cloud and Zack have relatively normal lives. Well, normal except for the dreams that plague them at night of people they swear that they’ve never met before. So when Zack sees the subject of innumerable such dreams pass him on the sidewalk one afternoon, everything turns upside down for the both of them as they struggle to both reconnect with each other while cutting ties with their difficult past lives.Clack/Zakkura, and temporary early on Sefikura.(Inspired by some fantastic art by lightningstrikes-art on tumblr!)
Relationships: Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos, Cid Highwind/Vincent Valentine, Sephiroth/Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Series: Collecting Names of the Lives That Went Wrong [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944673
Comments: 9
Kudos: 56





	You'll Be My Living Legacy

**Author's Note:**

> With everyone being reincarnated, no one is exactly the same, so some characters act a little differently or may be mentioned to also look different, the biggest to note of such being that Cloud is several inches shorter than his canon self! They also aren' the same ages or years apart, like Cloud is 20, Zack is 22... and so forth, and so forth. I think I set all three of the other first class at 23-25, Seph being the youngest.
> 
> This took me a very long time to write, so I hope you enjoy! I really enjoyed this, and might right more for this AU if there's an interest... I know there's a bit of a tonal shift halfway through, but my heart kept telling me to let Cloud and Zack be happy...
> 
> Forgot to mention that, in case there's any confusion, Vincent is Sephiroth's sort of adoptive dad/brother figure, though he's not much older than the main group you follow.
> 
> Also, please be sure to check out lightningstrikes-art that inspired this story! It was their art titled "Dreams of a past life with you" that got the ideas flowing! I've been wanting to write something FFVII for a bit now, so, if you're reading this, dear artist, thank you for the inspiration!

With the way that the storm pounds against his apartment window, and how the thunder cracks in the distance, shaking his already shivering bones to the point he feels it reverberate in his ribcage, Cloud would have sworn it was hurricane season, not the dead of winter. Trembling hands clutch at the blanket that had been discarded to floor in a kicking fit during his sleep, fingers wringing desperately into the fabric as he tries to ground himself back into reality. A gentle tug returns the covers to his frame and he twists onto one side, curling into himself as he bundles down into the soft material.

For one blissful moment, he feels as if he was swimming in a sea of gentle, woven wool, but then his mind recalls what had upset him in the first place and he screws his eyes shut, pleading to please, oh please, return to sleep and forget it all for a bit longer.

Lightning flashes outside the window to his bedroom, the shattering sound of thunder accompanying it a split second later, and he tries to focus on the clattering freezing rain against glass instead of his plaguing thoughts. Before long, he can feel the edges of his consciousness ebb and flow, the welcomed form of sleep finally returning to him.

Cloud hopes that, this time around, his mind will remain dreamless, and that he won’t have to witness yet another tragic death of someone he can’t quite place.

When morning finally rolls around, the storm clouds having dissipated hours prior, and the early sunlight of a winter morning filtering through his bedroom window, he musters the strength to rise from bed, hair mussed about in every which direction. As he readies himself for a, hopefully, uneventful morning, he tries to not look at himself in the mirror for very long, already aware of just how bad the bags under his eyes must look. Then again, dreaming night after night of some vaguely familiar man dying, practically in his arms, certainly does begin to take a toll on one’s self. Momentarily, as he tries to make something of his hair, he contemplates asking Tifa if she would know of any ways he could lessen the dark circles under his eyes with makeup.

Shaking those thoughts free from his head, Cloud scowls into the mirror and takes his toothbrush from the cup on the bathroom counter. The last time he’d let her have makeup even remotely near him, he’d regretted it near immediately. His phone vibrates against the stone countertop, clattering in a way that reminds him much too much of last night, or perhaps it was earlier that morning, he wasn’t quite sure. Still mid-toothbrushing, he slides a finger across the screen and checks the notification, catching sight of an all-too-familiar contact among the icons.

Blue eyes rolling, he swipes the finger in one direction and haphazardly enters his password, switching his toothbrush to his other hand. Sephiroth had texted him just then, his typical early morning bullshit, _good morning_ , _how are you_ , _I hope you’re fairing well_ , and Cloud simply types a two letter reply, all caps: _OK_. Clearly, Sephiroth takes the quick response as him urging him to go on, as soon there’s three little dots at the bottom of the screen.

_Your classes begin today, correct? Good luck._

Yeah, he’d definitely need it. Winter semesters were short, quick paced things, entire fall-to-spring classes being crammed down into half the time, but they were also cheaper, and, until he could get a proper scholarship, this was the best little backwater Cloud Strife could do as he pursued his degree in automotive technologies.

It was his first semester, too, which certainly did nothing to help his nerves. Having just arrived in Midgar from Nibelheim only two months prior, he was still settling in, the only thing he really had going for him being that he’d somehow managed to pick up a boyfriend with his, self-imposed, meager looks. Though him and Sephiroth were a new item, he was already having his doubts, but let it amount up to anxiety and depression eating away at him rather than worry further. They were only a few weeks into it, he should give it time.

Though he didn’t respond, Sephiroth is already typing up another message. It sends, _did you have another dream_ , and Cloud nearly chokes on the water he’s rinsing his mouth with. Spitting it out unceremoniously, he merely replies, _don’t worry_ , and mutes the app as he goes to get dressed.

His loose-fitting boxers are the first thing to be discarded to the floor, followed soon after by an undershirt that had been riding halfway up his torso. Swapping the boxers for form-fitting briefs, he sorts his through his lacking supply of clothes, digging out a worn and threadbare pair of jeans, he’d keep wearing them until the seat wore out, and a shirt that certainly he certainly wasn’t the first owner of. Money was tight in Nibelheim. You made do where you had to make do. The shirt was cleaned and unruined, and it smelled like him rather than some stranger, so it sufficed well enough.

Cloud tucks his oversized shirt into the top of his pants, slipping on a pair of socks afterwards, and rolls up the bottoms of his bootcut jeans. Sitting in front of the apartment door, he then slides on his boots, certainly the second to nicest thing he owns, after his jacket, and laces them up. Speaking of, his leather jacket hangs nearby on a coatrack, the visage of a mighty, snarling wolf embroidered into the back, and takes it down and shrugs it on. He’d spent too much on this to not wear it out at every given opportunity, chilly days like this being perfect reason enough. In the zippered-shut left front pocket, his keys jingle as he shakes his coat for reassurance that they are, in fact, there, and he places his phone into an inside pocket before slipping out the door, pulling his bag over one shoulder, and locks it behind him.

As he steps into the elevator, Tifa is already standing in it, holding the door open for him. She smiles as he joins her in the metal contraption, but he doesn’t look up at her as he zippers his jacket shut and adjusts his messenger bag. “Did you hear that storm last night?” An attempt at conversation is made, but he merely shrugs. “It woke me up, about 2 AM. I nearly thought I was back in Nibelheim for a moment!”

“Yup.” Cloud replies, and then he feels his childhood friend’s fingers in his hair, pulling locks this way and that.

“I see you still haven’t discovered a brush.” He waves her away, though she knows he means nothing by it. “Off to class, I take it? Be safe on your walk to campus, I’m sure there’s patches of ice.”

No attempt is made to cover the yawn he’s overcome with. “They don’t put down salt in advance?”

Tifa shoves him as she yawns in return, contagious as always, those things. “They do,” the elevator dings and she lets him off first, “but it’s not always enough, or spots get missed.” He’s halfway out the lobby door when she’s slipping something into his hand. “Gotta keep those little baby hands of yours warm!”

By the time he registers it’s a pair of gloves clutched between his palm and his fingers, she’s long gone, her long legs taking her down the street in the opposite direction of him. Shaking his head only ruffles his blonde locks into his eyes, but he threads his fingers through the gloves anyways.

Two, two-and-a-half hour long classes a day is manageable, Cloud finds, though it certainly is rather boring. However, he’s already, somehow, achieved the making of a new acquaintance who shared his afternoon class, a crotchety man older than him by a few years named Cid, who had helped him pass the time quicker with shared ramblings about various mechanical technicalities.

As they leave campus at about half past two, Cid claps him on the shoulder as he lights a cigarette already set to his lips, “just ask me if you ever get caught up on the material!” Cloud nods in reply at the older blonde, wrinkling his nose up at the scent of smoke as Cid takes a drag. Blue eyes light up in realization and the man takes a few steps back, “see ya, kid,” and excuses himself to smoke elsewhere.

His phone rumbles in his pocket, and he fishes it free and sees he’s received yet another notification from his boyfriend, having turned the app back on during his break between classes. Sephiroth is inviting him to a late lunch, alongside his friends, all three of which Cloud has yet to meet. _And before you ask, no it isn’t very expensive_ , he reads, _though I still wouldn’t mind paying for you either way_.

Indignant, he zippers his jacket up to better avoid the bitter winter winds, _no_ , Sephiroth doesn’t text back quickly for once, and he continues. _I’m not making you pay for me. Just can’t eat out a lot_.

He’s not quite watching where he’s going as he bumps into someone on the sidewalk, the affronted individual letting out a soft yelp as he’s suddenly shoved forward a few stumbling steps. Cloud grunts in return and his phone slips from his gloved hands, though, thankfully, the case protects it for the most part in its tumble as it clatters from corner to corner before landing flat on its back.

The other man turns around, and Cloud can only think to immediately glare in response though the black-haired individual before him has yet to show any malice towards him. His eyes are blue as well, though a darker shade, not nearly as teal as his own. Quickly, they widen in surprise, but the blonde is hasty to pick up his phone, tugging his jacket collar closer to his face as he tries to make his escape.

A hand to his sleeve is swift to stop him.

Zack can’t believe his eyes, he’d recognize that feathered, spikey mess of golden hair anywhere. As the man before him reaches to pickup his phone, a flood of dreamscape memories washes against the forefront of his brain, unyielding, of a man who looks eerily close to this guy, and he can only watch with a panicked, surprise sort of gaze.

_“At least someone is keeping up!”_

_“Well, I’m a country boy, too.”_

With hurried steps, the blonde is quick to make his retreat down the street, back in the direction he’d come from, one hand pulling the collar of his leather jacket flush to his cheeks. Zack panics as he escapes, and one hand shoots out to catch him by the cuff of his sleeve,

“Cloud?” That was the name of the man from his dreams, yeah? So maybe it was this guy’s name too. His fingers wrap tightly to the warm black leather beneath them, a quiet plea for him to stay longer, and talk with him.

The blonde twists himself free, yanking his arm close to his chest where he wrings his own hand against his wrist, “what the hell?” He nearly exclaims, but it is just a bit too monotone to be considered such. “Do I know you?”

Zack lets his hand linger in the air; he’s much too taken aback to do anything. “Maybe? I think I know you.” The hushed tone of his own voice is unfamiliar to him, but, as the blonde’s aquamarine eyes widen in surprise, then recognition, and back to surprise, his own feelings are discarded aside.

 _Cloud_ , yeah, that _has_ to be his name, turns on his heel and takes off in a sprint down the sidewalk. Zack’s hand, still hovering in the air, reaches for him, fingers uncurling from their idle state, but he’s already gone. “Hey, wait! Cloud!” He loses sight of him in the growing crowd of students newly dismissed from class.

A sense of dread washes over him, sweeping his head underwater, as he worries that there went his only chance of answers, dashing down the street.

His phone rings in his side pocket. Defeated, he fishes it free, and reads the text on screen. _Meet us for lunch?_ It’s Genesis, messaging him individually rather than their group chat. He must’ve missed a conversation again.

 _Lunch sounds good!_ He shoots back, staring down the sidewalk for any glimpse of golden hair, but there’s no such luck. _Where we going?_

Sephiroth knows well by now that the pout on his lips is a normal occurrence and doesn’t typically mean anything is particularly wrong, but, when he stands from his seat to place a kiss to Cloud’s forehead and the pout persists, he worries then. Though he quirks one brow, his silent inquiry is ignored as the blonde takes a seat across from him at the table set for five.

“You made it here quickly,” Sephiroth says, an attempt at idle conversation until the others arrive, “I’m afraid my friends will be quite late in comparison.”

Cloud shrugs, taking a menu from the holder in the center of the table as the conversation continues, albeit a bit one-sided. He’s questioned about his day so far, and, when he mentions he’d been woken during the storm by a dream, his boyfriend’s thin brows furrow, but he knows better than to press the matter further. After a simple, “I wish you’d tell me what bothers you so,” they drift away from the subjects of dreams.

It wasn’t so much he didn’t want to tell Sephiroth about his dreams as it was he worried for his reaction. Imagine your significant other, who you’ve known for the total of two months, and have been dating for only half of that time, tells you that they’ve been plagued for their entire life by dreams of people they _swear_ they’ve never met, but somehow feel that they _do_ know… He’d sound crazy.

Eventually the restaurant door opens up, a short bell toll accompanying a gale of winter breeze, and three men step into the room. Distracted by a text on his phone from Cid, they’d swapped numbers during class, he doesn’t pay them much attention until they sit down at their shared table.

“Sephi, how good to see you!” A red jacket is thrown against the back of the chair next to his boyfriend, and a pair of long-sleeved arms wrap around his shoulders. “What a dreadful thing, this winter. I didn’t want to leave Costa del Sol… such nice weather.”

One of the other two men gently shoves his shorter companion forward, causing him to stumble, “take a seat, Zack,” and a black-haired man sits down in the seat at the end of the table, the chair clearly belonging to another table and just having been pulled over for a plus one. This Zack hovers just out of his vision before he feels a tap to his shoulder, and Cloud looks up from his phone, only to come eye-to-eye with the man from before. He hopes his panic isn’t written all over his face.

“Mind if I sit next to you?” Zack asks, and he merely nods in reply. Shrugging off his black jacket is accompanied by the gentle clinking of the dog tags hanging low around his neck, and he places the article of clothing across the back of his chair before sitting, hands nervously in his lap.

“Sorry about earlier,” he eventually says as the other three catch up, the red-brunette feigning theatrics, “Sephiroth talks about you a lot, and I thought you were, well, you.”

Cloud sips at his hot chocolate, “’s okay.” So that was all, huh? He certainly felt foolish, but it did nothing to shake away the fact he recognized this man from his dreams.

Sephiroth pries the swooning man from his shoulder, “Cloud,” he catches the blonde’s attention, “these are my friends, Genesis, Angeal, and Zack.” At the end of the table, Angeal offers him a curt nod, though Genesis winks in turn.

“How darling,” the reddened-brunette says, “you’ve just moved to Midgard, correct? How are you settling in?”

“Fine enough. Got an apartment and a job, what more do I need?” Before the conversation can further itself, they’re interrupted by the waitress returning to take their orders, and then, once she leaves, the banter degrades into two separate ones, Angeal and Zack chatting away about something he couldn’t be brought to care about, as Genesis and Sephiroth took to further catching up. Cloud busied himself with his phone, occasionally glancing up at the raven gesturing wildly beside him.

He’s got two faint, intersecting scars on his left cheek, Cloud notes, but the longer he watches, the louder his thoughts seem to become. No matter how he tries, he can’t shake that face from his mind; once nameless, but now all he can imagine is Zack in that man’s place.

_Rain against his skin, pattering into fresh bruises and cuts, cooling, and stinging all at once, sliding down his face, rolling into his eyes. Bloodied and broken, Zack lays on the ground, arms spread out, water mixing with crimson pooling down the left of his face._

_“For the… both of us…”_

His eyes sting, but he tries to ignore it. The chattering in the restaurant is becoming too much to bear, somehow overcoming even the ringing of blood pounding in his ears, and the panicked beating of his chest.

_“Both… of us?”_

_“That’s right… you’re gonna…”_

_“You’re gonna…”_

“Cloud?” Blue eyes look up from his phone, the screen already having timed out at some point. Sephiroth watches him, worried, “are you alright?”

He’s all too aware now of the way his brows are furrowed, and how his lips are set into a deep frown. Biting back the tears for a moment longer, he stands from his seat, “yeah, I’ll be right back,” and retreats to the restroom.

_A hand comes to rise, slowly, weakly, and sets to his cheek, before sliding around and grasping him by the back of his head. He’s pulled down in an ungainly sort of position that leaves his head against a war-torn chest,_

_“Live.”_

The bathroom is a one-person situation, no stalls, and a lock on the door, so he twists the lock and all but collapses against the sink counter. His hands clutch at the granite as he tries to ground himself into reality, but it seems impossible as that voice rings through his head, repeating alongside the memories of labored breathing and streams of blood.

It’s impossible to catch the tears before they fall, rolling down his cheeks like the rain from his dream, and they land against his shirt with audible _drip-drops_. He stands there like that for who knows how long before there’s a knock at the door, rousing him from his stupor. Hurried, he switches the sink on, splashing cold water into his face, and pulls a handful of paper towels from the holder mounted to the wall. He pats his face dry, grunting at how red his eyes looks, and unlocks the door before throwing the towels away. There’s just a stranger on the other side of the door.

Sephiroth is still at the table with his friends, their food having arrived while he was away, but his boyfriend’s yet to touch his own plate. Angeal asks Zack something, earning a short nod in reply before the younger man digs into his lunch with a vigor Cloud’s never seen prior.

He retakes his seat, muttering, “eyelash,” and Sephiroth accepts the answer. After a moment, Angeal takes a sip of his drink and directs his attention to the blonde at the end of the table.

“So, Sephiroth says you’re in college for automotive technologies? I take it that you’re looking to become a mechanic, then?”

“Yeah. I’ve always had an interest in it, used to help my mom fix up the cars in town.”

“That’s so? Makes good money, I’d imagine.” Angeal nods his approval.

Genesis leans forward slightly, “it seems that all of us aside from Sephiroth are in college, then. We can have study parties, and he won’t be invited.”

The silver-haired man by his side huffs in response, turning his nose up. “Forgive me for already having graduated, Gen,” they divulge into bickering then, though it stays lighthearted enough. Cloud immediately sees why they get along so well.

Zack shuffles in place, crossing and uncrossing his legs as he starts bouncing in his seat, “do you like motorcycles?” He asks, mouth full. Angeal exclaims his name, aghast, and he swallows before continuing. “’Cause I just bought one, and it’s in need of some repairs. I was just gonna do it myself, but an extra set of hands is always nice!”

Cloud can’t help but blanche at the thought of spending more time around this waking nightmare.

“I’ll think about it.”

Zack collapses into bed about a quarter after ten, staring up at his phone as he holds it over his head, thinking about what to do. Cloud had been added to their group chat by the end of lunch, and he’s already hovering over his keyboard in the blonde’s direct messages. _This is the beginning of your direct message history with @StormCloud_ his phone reads as he tries to muster up the courage.

But what would he even send?

 _Hey, you’re the boy from my dreams?_ Oh, dude, no, what a way to get into a fight with your friend, practically hitting on his boyfriend. Okay, how about _so, about before, I said I thought I recognized you by how Seph described you, but, actually, it’s that you look like someone from reoccurring dreams?_ Better, but it made him sound pretty crazy.

His phone slips from his fingers and collapses to his face, connecting with the bridge of his nose. “Ow!” Zack hops up from bed, phone flying onto the mattress, and runs into the bathroom, ignoring the way Angeal and Genesis watch him as he sprints across their shared living space, clutching his nose.

As he examines the damage, he hears Angeal call after him, “are you okay?”

Genesis already has his eyes back on his book. “Do we need to go to the emergency room again?”

“Nooo,” Zack replies, “I just dropped my phone on my face…” Genesis snorts at him, causing an embarrassed blush to rise onto his cheeks.

“How ever did you survive without us for three weeks?” As he leaves the bathroom, gently rubbing the bridge of his nose, an icepack is deposited into his free hand, already wrapped in a washcloth. “Maybe Angeal was worried for good reason.”

Pouting, Zack turns on his heel to face the red-brunette. “I’m not a little kid, Gen! I’m just accident prone…”

“Besides, I was mostly just worried about you getting proper sleep while we were away.” Angeal puts his hands on the younger raven’s shoulders, feeling the tension lessen beneath his palms as Zack slumps in place.

“I slept well enough. I’m always gonna have those dreams, no matter if you two are here or not.” He stalks back into his room then, leaving his roommates perplexed in the living room at his sudden shift in demeanor. Clicking the door shut, he drops himself down onto his bed with a mighty sigh, and picks up his phone again. He stares down at the messenger app, suddenly very tired, before he sends a text Cloud’s way,

_Hey, wanna hang out this weekend? Ang and Gen are having date night so I’ll be stuck on my lonesome, was thinking about starting some repairs._

Blue eyes flutter shut before he can wait to see if he gets a reply.

When his phone vibrates on the pillow next to him, Cloud expects it to be Tifa checking that he’d eaten today, not Zack popping into his DMs. From the lock screen, he can only make out the first few words, and it immediately fills him with a sense of dread.

Rolling over, he takes his phone into his hands and swipes the screen to Sephiroth’s contact. It’s 10:33 at night, but he knows his boyfriend will be up another two hours at least, yet, still, he hesitates to click the call button. His finger shakes on its own volition and hits call, so he leans back to see if he gets an answer.

A click on the other side tells him it’s been picked up. “Cloud?”

“You’re not too busy,” he knows Sephiroth is always busy to some degree, he’s never fully free, “are you?”

“For you? Never.” From the other side of the call he hears the older man set something down and push his rolling chair out from his desk, and then a few footsteps, followed by the opening of a sliding door. He must be on the balcony now.

Cloud rolls onto his back, staring up at his apartment ceiling. “I hope you’re wearing something warm if you’re outside.”

Sephiroth chuckles, and he hears the crinkling of a patio chair beneath his boyfriend’s weight. “Surely you didn’t call to mother me.”

His heart skips a beat at the laugh, and he remembers one reason why he said yes to the other’s proposition of a date in the first place. “Can I talk to you about something kinda… serious?” As he says it, he feels the way his cheeks heat in embarrassment and absolutely hates it. “About my dreams.”

“Of course.” Sephiroth’s voice is as even as always.

Cloud sighs into the mic, covering his eyes with one arm, “I know I’m gonna sound crazy, but I get dreams where I see people I don’t know, but can’t help feeling like I _do_ , like there’s just this air of familiarity around them. I always kinda chalked them up to nothing,

“That is, until I met you.” There’s a soft _oh?_ from the other side of the line. “You were in my dreams from time to time, but I never knew your name, just what you looked like, _sounded_ like. Your friend, Zack, he’s also been in them, but the one I get of him a lot, it’s been… plaguing me.”

“How so?”

“Since I moved here, I just keep dreaming, every night, of him… dying. Practically in my arms. Riddled with bullet holes, and bleeding out, and he just tells me that I’ve gotta live, and hands me a giant sword, asks me to remember him, and I swear that I will.”

“And you’re sure it’s Zack?”

“Just as sure as I am that it was you.” He pulls his arm back, and rolls over to turn the bedside lamp off.

Sephiroth hums. “I can understand why such a dream would upset you, Cloud.”

“You don’t think I’m crazy?”

“Of course not. Truth be told, I’ve had similar experiences.” Cloud’s breath hitches in his throat at the admission. “You often were the subject of my dreams, the rest of them were awfully unpleasant. Dreaming of you was a welcome change.”

“Does it ever frighten you?”

“They’re merely dreams, Cloud. I know that, in real life, I am not a one-winged creature sporting a sword as long as I am tall, and that my own father doesn’t experiment on me. Dreams are not reality, there is nothing to fear.”

“…I thought you didn’t know your father?”

“Precisely. Merely dreams, my dear Cloud.”

Sighing once again, the blonde lifts up his blankets and shimmies underneath. “I still need to meet your foster family,”

“You and Vincent would get along very well. You’re both brooding, dark individuals.” Silence falls over them for a moment. “Have I helped you at all?”

Cloud nods, though he knows Sephiroth can’t see it. “Mm, thank you. So, then, you think Zack and I should be fine to hang out? He texted me a bit ago, asking if I wanted to help with repairs this weekend.”

“Of course. I imagine it would do you very well to not only overcome this, but to make a new friend as well.” He hears Sephiroth open the sliding door once again, and shuffle out of his house shoes. Wheels roll against the floor as he retakes his seat at his desk. “I’m glad I could help you. Sleep well, my dear.”

“Yeah. Night.”

When the next morning finally rolls around, Zack is kicking his blankets free from his legs with bleary, red eyes, his cheeks stained by tears as the latest dream thunders through his head. _Cloud stares down at him, right half of his face crimson from his own blood, not the blonde’s, and he looks away for a moment to reach over for the blade by his side, cleaned by the rain so that a pool of watery ruby lay around it._

He shakes his head and stalks into the restroom, taking his toothbrush from the stand. Angeal is in the kitchen, stirring honey into a cup of steaming liquid, and he can hear the _clink, clink, clink_ of metal on ceramic which does little to deafen the pounding of falling rain still playing in his head.

_“My honor, my dreams,” a sword handle in his hand, rising up as he offers the giant blade out to Cloud, who looks every bit as broken as he feels, “they’re yours now.”_

_Gently, slowly, Cloud wraps his own hand around the hilt, and Zack lets it go to make space for the blonde to take it into both of hands his fully. He twists his own hand around then, and shoves the hilt lightly so that it slides backwards against arms that don’t resist in the slightest, the hilt gently meeting a lithe chest._

_Cloud chokes on his breath as his lips part, “I’m your… living legacy…”_

_Zack feels his own lips twist into a smile as his vision blurs further, his eyes sliding shut. Darkness overtakes him, and he doesn’t open them back up._

His chest tightens in some sort of phantom pain that he _knows_ he doesn’t truly feel, but, by the Gods, does it feel like it’s real. Staring into the mirror, questions roam throughout his head, but they never once collide into an answer. There’s a knock at the door, Genesis’s tired voice following.

“Zack, hurry up, some of us have places to be,” he splashes cold water into his face and grabs a washcloth from the closet, patting his face dry. There’s a slight bruise to the bridge of his nose and he grimaces, though that’s cut short by his roommate opening the door. “Come on.”

Holding his hands up placatingly, he swaps places with him, Genesis grabbing his own toothbrush. Angeal is sitting at the island counter, and he slides a cup of coffee into his view. Zack takes it graciously, seeing that it’s already done up how he likes it, and takes a sip.

“Does it look bad?” He gestures up to the bruise developing on his nose, receiving a gentle shake of the head in return.

“It could be worse.” Angeal sips idly at his own drink, bouncing one leg as it rests, propped up against a footrest at the bottom of the barstool. “Try not to drop any more phones on yourself until it heals.”

Zack rubs the back of his head, meek, and then his blue eyes widen in realization. “My phone!” He pats down his pajamas for the device. It rings from his bedroom and he sets down his cup to rush off to grab it.

Genesis had texted him from the bathroom, _dumbass_ , and he pouts. “You’re so mean in the morning, Genny!” He scrolls through his notifications as he heads back into the kitchen, and, as he grabs his coffee again, squeaks in surprise. “Cloud texted me back! I was kinda worried he didn’t like me…”

“You can come off a bit strong, Zack.”

From inside the bathroom, they hear their other roommate chime in, “like a high energy dog. Perhaps a retriever?” Angeal can’t stifle his laughter, even as the younger raven’s pout makes a return from the night prior. “Well, what were you two texting you about?”

“Oh, I was just hoping he’d be free this weekend to help with my bike. He said he should be!”

“Just make sure you don’t distract him from his classwork too much. Winter semesters are difficult.”

“And make sure you don’t distract him from Sephiroth~”

Angeal merely rolls his eyes as the youngest roommate splutters into his coffee, a blush creeping across his cheeks. Zack texts his potential new friend their address accompanied by, _stop by any time this weekend! Just text when you get here!_

After that, the rest of the week passes without a hitch. Friday had been left devoid of classes, so Cloud had taken the time to join Cid in the library for some group studying, if you could call the two of them a group. For what it was worth, despite how grumpy he could be, and loud, as well, Cid was good study partner. Even if it was easy to get him started on tangents, like near hour long tangents about his fiancé.

Anyhow, Friday had passed quickly enough with Cid’s company, and Cloud had been legitimately tired that night, letting him sleep a relatively fitful night. Despite that, he awoke with the memories of another dream in the forefront of his brain, but merely kept repeating Sephiroth’s words in his head whenever the dream would return.

_The weight of a sword in his hands, blood wet against his face-_

_“Dreams are not reality, there is nothing to fear.”_

Cloud takes a deep breath as he straightens himself, pulling his jacket over his shoulders. He tucks his chin into the high neck of his sweater as he opens up his front door, digging his hands into his jacket pockets. Down the hall, he can hear Tifa chatting away with some of their neighbors, and ignores them all when someone called his name.

“Aw,” he hears one of them whine, like a child.

Tifa laughs, the sound of her clapping a hand on someone’s arm or shoulder following. “Don’t take it so personally, Wedge. It just takes him some time to get used to others.”

Slipping into the elevator, he presses the lobby button and stands back to wait. His phone buzzes in his back pocket and he finds it’s merely Sephiroth’s morning wishes. _You too,_ he sends, _hey, do you know the best way to get to Zack’s place from here?_

Directions arrive quickly enough, he’s only a few steps out the front door of the lobby when his phone vibrates again. _If you get lost, just call me._ Though doubtful it would happen, he still sends a thumbs up before setting off.

Turns out Zack lives in a high rise apartment complex, a modern sort of building with big windows that span from floor to ceiling, though most of them are blocked out by curtains at this hour. When he steps into the lobby, there’s a woman at the front desk who calls to him while he looks around, astounded by what he sees.

“Hello! How may I help you?”

“I, uh, am here for a visit?”

“And who are you visiting?”

“Uh, hold on,” he fishes his phone from his pocket, and sends a text Zack’s way, “his name is Zack, lives with Angeal and Genesis?” She takes some information from him, name, ID, recording it down into a logbook as an elevator opens up.

The doors have barely opened up before there’s bounding steps towards the lobby desk. “Cloud! You made it!” Behind the desk, the woman arches a brow as Zack hops up to the shorter man and nearly takes him into an embrace, catching himself when the blonde takes three steps back, hands raised. “Oh, sorry,” he reels himself in a bit, “is he all cleared, Cissnei?”

When the woman nods, Zack gestures for Cloud to follow. Once they’re in the elevator, Cloud lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “I wasn’t expecting you to live in _this_ nice a place.”

“Oh, yeah, Genesis wouldn’t be caught dead in anywhere even half a percent less cool than this. Speaking of Genny, I wasn’t expecting you to get here so early! Him and Ang are still getting ready to leave.”

“Sorry.”

“Hey! Don’t be! Just means we have more time to hang out, yeah?” Zack smiles down at him, and Cloud is quick to avert his eyes, as if he’s going to get blinded by him. “Plus, don’t want’cha thinking we can only hang out when there’s no one else ‘round. You’re welcome any time!”

Though he merely nods in response, the raven keeps talking away. He must always have something to say, Cloud decides in that moment, though he doesn’t find his incessant chatter nearly as aggravating as others. At floor thirteen, the doors open up and Zack offers him a playful bow when he tells him to step off first. Aquamarine eyes roll as he exits the elevator, though he can’t stop the smile tugging at his lips.

There are only a few apartments to a floor, Cloud discovers, and they stop at the second to last door on the left side. Zack unlocks the door and lets him in first, calling over him. “Gen! Ang! Cloud’s here!”

He’s taken aback by how nice their apartment is. Immediately to their right is the kitchen, complete with an island, and with the open floor design, the living room is in immediate view. There’re two doors in the wall to their left, one of them open to reveal a clean, tiled bathroom. Against the far wall is a flight of stairs leading to a second floor that overhangs slightly above this one.

Sitting on the couch is Angeal, who’s buttoning up the top of his shirt. “Hey,” Zack hops over the back of a loveseat, landing on his rear, “we’ll be out of your hair in a few minutes. Genesis is still getting dressed.”

“You can’t rush beauty, darling!” They hear the man in question call, singsong, from the second floor. Angeal laughs and shakes his head, standing from his spot.

“Make yourself at home. Set your things down anywhere.”

“Thanks,” Cloud says as he places his messenger bag down on a barstool and comes to sit across from Zack. He notices that there’s a bundle of red-brown fur by the other man’s side, which he quickly realizes is a pair of cats curled atop one another when Angeal scratches one behind the ears as he passes. “You guys get to keep pets here?”

“Yup! As long as it’s nothing over twenty-five pounds, and there’s less than four of ‘em. These two are Gen’s cats!” As Zack explains, one of the felines stretches a paw out before rolling over. “I really wanna get a dog.”

“Why ever would we need a dog when we already have you?” Genesis says, nonchalant, as he passes by them. He offers their guest a short smirk as the youngest roommate stutters in surprise at the comment. “Good to see you again, Cloud. I trust college has been treating you well?”

Cloud merely nods in reply, and then Angeal hands his date his wallet and keys. “We’ll be back before dark. Text if you need anything.” As the two of them slip out the door, the raven ducks his head back in and adds, “please don’t forget to lock the door when you leave, Zack.”

He receives a bright smile and a thumbs up in return. “Gotcha! Have fun!”

The both of them sit in silence for a few moments after the duo leaves, only interrupted by one of the cat’s meowing as Zack pets them down their back. “We’ll head down to the garage after I have some breakfast, sound good?”

“Okay.”

“Have you eaten yet?” He pats the other cat on the head as he stands up, stretching his arms up over his head. Cloud averts his eyes when he notices the raven’s shirt has lifted halfway up his torso, revealing muscles he didn’t know he had. Zack drops his arms with a yawn, and sets a brisk pace to the fridge.

Cloud moves to follow him into the kitchen. “I had something on the way here.”

“Yeah? That’s good.” Zack pulls a carton of eggs from the fridge. “Though I really wouldn’t have minded feeding you!” He removes two eggs from the container and slides it back into the fridge. “I usually have a really big breakfast, but I’m not working out today, so I’m not so worried.”

 _Yeah, I can tell you work out_ , Cloud nearly says, but knows it would be incredibly inappropriate. He, instead, takes a seat at the island counter and watches as Zack cooks, chatting away about how usually Angeal makes the food, but he’d taught him how to make a few easy things.

“So, how’d you meet Seph anyways?”

“Huh? Oh,” he rubs the back of his head, “at work, actually. He stops in just about every morning for coffee. Nothing special.”

“Nothing special? He doesn’t usually like people that much so quickly.”

“So I’ve heard. But I haven’t experienced that.”

“Well, I’d bet it’s ‘cause you two are so much alike. Quiet, but secretly really nice, and then you’re also really cute so-” Zack nearly drops the turner he’s using to flip the eggs over at his own words. Cloud sits back in his seat, eying him with a creased brow. “Uh, ahaha, that came out wrong! I’m not hitting on you, promise! That’d be really inappropriate of me.”

“Yeah.”

“’Cause you’re dating one of my best friends, and we barely know each other, I mean, we just met officially a few days ago!”

“Officially?”

“Ah! Y-yeah! Cause, you know, Seph told us so much about you, it was kinda like we already met in a way…”

“You’re a horrible liar, you know that?”

Zack deposits the eggs onto a small plate, and takes the toast he’d started during the conversation from the slots on the machine. Chewing on his bottom lip, he goes to retrieve the butter from the fridge. “Uh, well… it’s just… do you ever have those days where you just kinda get déjà vu, like you’ve seen it before in a dream?”

“Sure.”

“Well, I kinda had that, but with you.” Butter properly spread on his toast; he places it back as he rubs at the back of his head with his free hand. “Does that even make sense? Maybe you’ve just got one of those faces, yeah? Or maybe I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

“That’s impossible. I only moved here two months ago.”

“Well I’m not from here.”

“Yeah? Where from then?”

“Gongaga.”

Cloud chuckles, causing Zack’s face to burn softly with embarrassment.

“Hey, what's so funny about that? You know Gongaga?”

“No, but... it's such a backwater name.”

“Ditto Nibelheim.”

“Like you've been there.”

Chuckling this time, though this time bitterly, Zack takes a bite of his food and mutters below his breath as he turns around, “I haven't, but there's a reactor there, right? A Mako reactor outside Midgar usually means...”

Without thinking, Cloud adds, “nothing else out there.”

They both freeze in place, blinking back at each other. Setting down his slice of toast, the raven leans in, resting his forearms against the countertop and draws his brows in close together. Eye-to-eye with each other for the first time, considering their height difference, and Zack whispers out, “good news, Tseng. Me and…”

“Cloud.”

“Me and Cloud here are both backwater experts.”

Silence overtakes them again, though this time for a very different reason, before, suddenly, they both lurch backwards, away from each other, exclaiming. Cloud spirals from his seat and lands on the floor with a soft _oof_ as Zack collapses against the counter behind him, nearly bonking his head on a cabinet.

In the living room, both of the cats’ startle from the couch, running up the stairs in a flurry, away from the sudden action. “H-how did you know that! Do you get the dreams too!”

“Yeah! I didn’t think you’d have them too! Shit, I shoulda realized when Sephiroth said he has them too…”

“Sephiroth gets them?” Zack steps closer, finding that Cloud is still sitting on the floor, rubbing his rear where he’d landed. “Are you okay?”

“Mm,” he nods slightly, and takes the hand the raven offers out to him, letting himself be pulled to his feet. “He and I talked about it the other night. That’s, uh, why I ran away from you. I get… nightmares, I guess, of you… dying.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that one too. I hand you that giant sword, during a rainstorm.” Cloud nods in response, and then the older man continues. “What does Seph see? Does he have dreams about us too?”

“He didn’t specify, but they don’t sound like they’re exactly pleasant either. I know he’d seen me, but…”

“This is crazy.” Zack runs both hands through his hair, taking several steps towards the living room, food forgotten. He paces back and forth in front of the giant windows, leaving the blonde to watch, concerned. “I’d always thought I was just… having really vivid dreams, until I saw you, and then I started thinking I was insane or something.”

There’s a gentle hand on his back, stilling him from his insistent pacing. He turns to see Cloud looking up at him, nearly a foot shorter than him, with worried eyes. “I know I came over to help you with your bike, but how about we just… talk for a bit? Work through this?”

“Yeah,” he nods in reply, “I’d like that.”

They never do get around to fixing the bike by the time Angeal and Genesis come home. Instead, they’re found sitting on the same couch, a few empty and half-so boxes of various snacks between them, but their conversation has completely halted when the duo walk in, hand in hand. “Good evening, children,” the reddened-brunette calls to them with a flourish, striking a pose, “mother and father are home, I hope you did your homework.”

“Who’s the mom?” Cloud says through gritted teeth, clearly unhappy they’d been interrupted.

Genesis puts a hand on his hip, handing a bag in his hands to his boyfriend. “Why, Angeal, obviously. Silly boy.”

“You’re only older than me by two years,” Zack cries out, “hardly old enough to be my parents!”

Angeal rolls his eyes as he walks past the scene unfolding before him. Cloud decides that he’s clearly the brains of this entire operation, as the only one out of the trio with any sense. He places the bags down on the coffee table, petting one of the cats as he walks by. When him and the blonde meet eyes, his gaze is apologetic.

Cloud shrugs, and goes to stand, breaking up the bickering. “I’m gonna head home. Sorry we never got around to fixing up your bike, Zack.”

“Hey, no biggie!”

The raven goes to grab his jacket for him, alongside his bag, and hands them both over at once. “Will you be fine walking home on your own at this hour? It’s nearly dark out.” Genesis asks him as he puts his leather jacket on. “Perhaps Angeal can drive you home.”

“I’ll be fine. It didn’t take me that long to get here.”

“Oh, if you insist.”

“I’ll walk you down to the lobby!” Zack is already on his way to the door, giving Cloud absolutely no opportunity to reply before he’s being dragged along.

Again, their elevator ride is full of the raven’s chattering, though the blonde finds absolutely no complaints with it this time around. When he leads him out the doors, the same woman is still at the front desk, typing away at her computer. As Cloud steps out the lobby doors, she calls after him, “have a good night! Be safe!”

Before he even realizes what’s about to happen, Cloud finds himself caught in a strong embrace, swaying gently slightly side-to-side. “Feel free to text me whenever a dream bothers you, okay? Or call! No issue!”

“Okay, okay,” he pushes himself free of the hug, “just ask before you touch next time, alright?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry!” Zack takes a few steps back, rubbing the back of his head. “Just be safe for me, okay Choco-butt?”

“What did you just call me?”

Zack laughs, waving his hands in front of him dismissively. “Oh nothing! Take it easy, Cloud.”

That night, he gets a call. When he reads Sephiroth’s name across his screen, he picks up his phone, answering with a sleepy, “sup.”

“How did it go with Zack?” Is his immediate reply, his boyfriend’s cool voice on the other side calming any nerves he might’ve had left after the day he’d had.

Cloud hums quietly, “pretty well. We never got to fixing the bike, actually. Spent the whole time talking.”

“Is that so?”

“As it turns, he’d been having the same dreams as me, so we just… talked for hours about them, theorizing and all that.”

Sephiroth’s side goes dead silent, and, after several seconds, he pulls his phone away from his ear and looks at the screen to check he hadn’t been disconnected, or accidentally hung up. Nope, everything looks fine. Maybe he’d fallen asleep?

Finally, he hears something from the other side of the call, and then the silver-haired man says, voice nearly a whisper, “he dreams as well? And yours directly correlate?”

“Mm,” Cloud stretches out across his bed, pulling his homework closer as he rereads the notes. “Why is that such a surprise? Maybe ours do, too? What-”

“I do not want to talk about it.” Sephiroth cuts him off in a hasty manner he’d never before encountered from the man.

Brows furrowing, the blonde looks away from his notes and focuses on the wall instead. “Why not? You said they’re just dreams, so why can’t we talk about them?”

“Because I _do not want_ to.”

“Oh,” he marks his page and slams his homework shut, “so I’m just supposed to spill my guts for you, but you won’t do the same?”

From the other side of the line, he swears he hears a muttered _you don’t know the half of it_.

“What’s so horrible you can’t share, huh? I already told you about _Zack dying in my arms_ , every night, for the past two months, and you can’t tell me anything? You already mentioned something about science experiments and what have you but-”

“Why can you never be quiet when you should?” Sephiroth bites, and he feels a sense of panic wash over him, like he’s suddenly encountered a monster.

Cloud steels himself, sitting up on his bed, “okay, no, you don’t get to talk to me that way.” He could feel anger boiling up inside himself, evaporating the previous panic he’d felt away. “What’s your sudden problem, Sephiroth? Is there something you’re not telling me? That you _don’t want_ me to know?”

“I’m…”

“Be honest.”

“I can’t quite say what’s coming over me. I think that I’m afraid,” the man draws a shaky breath, “afraid of the things I’ve done in those dreams. Cloud, I hurt people, _killed_ people, those that I care about included. What if I do such horrible things? What if I hurt you?”

“Do you want to hurt me?” Cloud asks, feeling his anger exchange for panic once more.

“No! I would never! But we don’t know if these dreams are the past or the future, what if something happens? I can’t bare the thought of being such a horrid creature, Cloud, I tried to destroy the world!”

“Who knows that these dreams are real at all, Sephiroth?”

“And what, it’s just all pure happenstance?”

“Perhaps.” He sighs, and lays down, head falling to his pillow. “How about this, when I get some free time, we can look into it. See if there isn’t anything we can’t find out to prove this was all in the past or some shit.”

“And if it was the past? Does that make me any better?”

“Yeah, it would actually. Look at it this way, Seph, if it was the past, then who says that you’re the same exact person as you were before? Clearly, you’re not. You said you dreamt of your father, right? You don’t even know him,”

Sephiroth sighs heavily, and he hears him set the phone down onto his desk. “Ohh, Cloud, you genius!”

“Huh?”

“You’re exactly right! I don’t know my father, I never have, he died before I was born, so if it truly was my father in my dreams…”

“Then it isn’t the future!”

“Meaning it has to be some sort of alternate reality, gods forbid, or the past.”

Cloud can’t help but smile in return to that. “See, I told you. And worst case scenario, it’s the past, you obviously aren’t the same person as you were before. Even if you believe in rebirth and all that, there’s no way someone can be exactly the same every single time, yeah?”

“Surely. Thank you, Cloud.”

Another few weeks pass by, uneventful aside from classes, which are becoming increasingly boring, and study power hours with Cid. At one point, he found Cid already in the library, though, waiting with him, was a long-haired man, paler than the snow coating the ground outside, and clad in a heavy, red cloak-like article of clothing. His nose was buried in a book, and Cloud noticed a pair of thin framed glasses settled low on his nose.

Cid waved him down, patting the table he’s settled at in a show for Cloud to join them. He sat his bag down on the end of the table and took a seat across from the two of them. “Hey, kid!” The older blonde swung one arm around his companion’s shoulders, and pulled him close, nearly knocking his book from his hand. “This is Vinny, my fiancé.”

“Nice to meet you,” the raven bowed his head slightly in greeting, before his red eyes widened in recognition, and he put the book down, “I thought you looked familiar. You were dating Sephiroth, weren’t you?”

“Oh, yeah. How’d you know?” Cloud swore everyone around him could see the wheels turning in his head before something finally clicked into place. “Wait, Vinny is short for Vincent, isn’t it? You must be the guy who took Sephiroth in.”

Vincent nodded, “you’d be correct.”

“No hard feelings about, uh, the breakup, right?”

“None at all. You two still seem to be good friends, and it was mutual, was it not? I’ve no reason to take issue with you, Cloud.”

Truth be told, it was a bit less than mutual, but who was he to complain. Sephiroth had decided that he needed some time to process his feelings over coming to terms with his dream self, worried that it was merely emotions of possessiveness from this past or alternate version of him that made him want Cloud in any manner other than platonic. He couldn’t exactly tell him no to all that, now could he?

Plus, then that left him open to figure out his own emotions over Zack.

The two of them had grown awfully close since that day, when they’d admitted their dreams to one another, and the whole thing left him rather confused in his own right. Zack was everything he wasn’t, bright, high-energy, talkative, seemingly flawless… Every time they hung out, Cloud found himself being pulled more and more towards the raven.

That’s exactly why he finds himself standing here, finger hovering over his phone keyboard as he stares at the screen of his and Sephiroth’s direct messages. Finally, he pulls some courage from the dregs, and types out _hey, do you have a minute?_

_Always._

_Be honest with me, would it be okay if I asked Zack out?_

His blood is pounding in his ears as he watches the ellipses pop up as Sephiroth types, before, after what feels like forever, he receives _you should go for it! You two would make a very lovely couple!_

_No hard feelings?_

_Why would there be? We’re not dating at the moment, now are we? What sort of friend would I be if I were upset about this sort of thing?_

_You’re the best, Seph._

_I know, I know. Now, go ask him out. Best of luck._

He lets out a breath he’d been holding in, and collapses back against his bed before rolling over to text Zack, letting him know he’d be stopping by tomorrow morning. He receives a thumbs up in reply, so he powers off the screen and climbs beneath the covers.

_Rain against his bruised, hurting form, battering down on him, cold and numbing. Zack lays before him, certainly no better off, and he watches as he struggles to breathe, riddled with bullet wounds. He knows the only reason he’s held on so long is because of his Mako treatments,_

_Wait, what’s Mako? How does he know that?_

_Dreaming Cloud is left unable to wonder for long as his body crawls to his friend. “Z-Zack,”_

_He grunts in pain, clenching his jaw, before turning to smile up at him, a somber sort of thing. Zack knows this is a final goodbye._

_“For the… both of us…”_

_“Both… of us?”_

_“That’s right… you’re gonna…”_

_“You’re gonna…”_

_There’s a hand on the back of his head, pulling him down so that his forehead collides with an injured midsection. Cloud can smell the blood, metallic, and he hears a softly spoken “live.” The hand on the back of his head moves ever-so-slightly in a circle, an attempt at being comforting as he’s held on all fours,_

_“You’ll be… my living legacy.”_

After coming to terms with his dreams, learning what they seemed to be, him and Zack had settled on _memories_ , a more tragic set of lives that had struggled and fought so that they may have these better ones, Cloud had found himself in a much better mood most days. Of course, that didn’t stop him from being unfriendly.

“Cloud!” Tifa calls for him, and he merely adjusts his messenger bag on his shoulder and continues down the hall for the elevator. “Cloud, come on! You don’t have class today, so surely you can spare two moments for me of all people!”

Grumbling, he stops in place and turns on his heel. Tifa smiles down at him, and takes him by the hand. “Finally, now I can introduce you to some very good friends of mine.” She leads him to her apartment, where he finds a group of four people, no, five, he notices a small girl hiding behind a very tall, and intimidating, man’s leg. “Everyone, this is Cloud! Cloud, these are my friends, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Barett, and Marlene!”

There was a chorus of hellos from the group, and he offered a curt nod in return.

“We decided to have a holiday party a week ahead, so that everyone could spend time with family _and_ friends,” she tells him as she leads him into her apartment, where she’s managed to set up a nice spread of food across her dining table, which she’s pulled into the living space, “I know you’ve got something to do, but, here, sit and wait for just one minute,”

Tifa sits him down in one of the chairs drawn into the living room, her friends already having returned to conversation. Wedge tries to strike something up with him, but it falls flat when he proceeds to only provide one or two word answers.

Eventually his childhood friend returns, and hands him a giftwrapped box, bow and all, with his name sprawled across the side. “Here, for you! You can open it later, I don’t wanna hold you up for too long.”

“Thanks, Tif,” he accepts the box, setting it in his lap, before wrapping an arm around her in a short hug, “I haven’t gotten you anything yet.”

“No worries! Take your time, I’m sure you’ve been busy with classes. Finals are next week, right?”

“Mm,”

“Good luck then! And be safe.”

He excuses himself then, saying a quick goodbye, before he disappears out her apartment door, and slips down the hall into the elevator once again.

Cissnei knows him by now, and when he crosses through the lobby threshold, she directs him down to the garage, where Zack said he’d be waiting. His bike is on the ground level of the garage, so Cloud finds him quickly enough, crouching by the motorcycle’s side as he wipes his hands clean of grease.

“Hey,” he says, catching his friend’s attention, and receives a bright smile in return. Cloud has his hands tucked into his jacket pockets, sheltering them from the winter chill, his gift from Tifa tucked under one arm. Zack rises to his feet, holding his arms out in a silent offer.

“Cloud, you’re here! Look, she’s all fixed up!” Strong arms wrap around the blonde’s slight frame when he nestles up against his friend’s chest after he sets the gift down on the bike’s seat, though he makes no movement to return the hug. “We should take her out for a drive before that blizzard hits this weekend!”

Cloud tilts his head up, aqua eyes meeting blue ones, and he nervously looks away, biting at his lip. “What is it?” Zack lets him go, taking a step back for his comfort.

“I, uh,” he pulls one hand from his pocket, nearly losing his keys when he does, but he catches them midair, and goes to rub the back of his hair awkwardly, “heh, was curious if you’d… wanna go out sometime?”

“Of course, we can do anything you wanna! Movie? Get some lunch? Ohh, lunch sounds nice-”

“No, no, Zack I meant _go out_ go out. Like…”

“Like a date?”

“Y-yeah…”

Cloud stares down at the bike, trying to concentrate on the peeling paintjob rather than his anxious breathing as he puts his hands back into his pockets. It’s rather difficult, considering the way his vision starts to blur from panic as what feels like an eternity ticks by. Zack sucks in a heavy breath, and his eyes sting, but then the raven envelops him into a second hug, swaying him side-to-side as he laughs, full of mirth.

“Cloud! I didn’t think you felt the same!”

At his words, aquamarine eyes snap back into focus and he realizes what the older man had said. Looking up, he sees that a wide smile has enveloped Zack’s face, and he leans down to rest his chin against blonde hair.

“Felt… the same?”

“Uh-huh! I’ve been wanting to ask you out for weeks, but Angeal said I should wait, in case you weren’t ready to date again so soon.”

Slowly, Cloud takes his hands back from his jacket pockets and wraps both arms around Zack’s musclebound torso. His hands barely meet, the tips of fingers brushing, so he settles to, instead, clutch at his blue sweater, thumbs tracing the patterns. With a soft hum, he closes his eyes and relaxes into the touch for the first time in his life, and feels hands settle politely above his waist.

Zack lets him pull away on his own time, but he doesn’t fully remove himself from the embrace, instead keeping one arm hooked around his friend while his other hand fiddles with his jacket sleeve. “How about we take the bike out _and_ get some lunch?”

“Sounds great!” One hand comes to settle against his cheek, thumb gently tracing lines between the sparse freckles that dust his skin. “I never knew you had freckles! So cute…”

“Zack…” he whines, shying away from the touch, but he still doesn’t fully step away.

His friend laughs, and looks down at him with the softest smile he’s yet to see. “I speak only the truth! Now, let’s go grab helmets, yeah? Safety first!”

Angeal and Genesis wave them off as they leave the garage, having come down to see it now that it was running properly. “Our baby is all grown up,” the red-brunette cries from where his face is buried in his boyfriend’s chest, “off on a date, on his own motorcycle…”

Zack and Cloud grimace at one another before they slide their helmets over their heads, the raven turning the key soon after. Wrapping his arms around his midsection, Cloud holds tight as they leave the parking lot, Angeal calling after them to be safe. They’re not far away from the restaurant their friend group frequents, so it’s only a few minutes worth of a drive.

As they’re seated in a corner table, Cloud glances around to find that there’s only two other tables occupied. Must be a slow Friday afternoon. Across the room, one of the other groups erupts into laughter as a redhead shoots his straw paper at a long, black-haired man sitting at one of the high-tops nearby. He catches it, and crumples it up as he slides down from the barstool in one smooth movement, “allow me to return the favor, Reno,”

The paper is dunked into the redhead’s drink with a cruel smile, and the redhead hangs his head in defeat before the raven returns to his seat, his companion letting out a short snorting laugh in return.

Cloud leans in, “do they look kinda familiar to you, too?”

“Yeah. They live in my apartment building, but I know I’ve seen Tseng before in a dream or two.” Zack gestures to the long-haired man, now resting his chin on one palm as he furthers conversation with the pale blonde across from him. “They’re a strange lot, but I like them.”

“You like everyone.”

“Not true!”

“Oh yeah?” Cloud quirks a brow and leans back in the padded seat. “Name one person you don’t like.”

“Uh… okay, you’ve got me.”

They order their drinks soon after, and it doesn’t take long for their coffee and hot chocolate respectively to be set down in front of them. Cloud takes note of how his friend prepares his drink, two creamers, one hazelnut, one not, and a single pack of sugar. In his effort to commit that to useful memory, he nearly misses as Zack takes the spoon from his own cup and makes a swipe to steal the whipped cream piled high on his cocoa.

Indignant, the blonde pushes his hand away. “Hey, get your own, handsy,” but, when the other pouts up at him with those blue, puppy dog eyes, he relents. Sighing, he slides the mug closer and Zack takes a spoonful, smiling in triumph.

“Mind if I pay for us both? As thanks for all your mechanic help?” He asks, spoon still in his mouth, “I know you don’t like letting others pay for you, but… I definitely couldn’t have done it all on my own.”

Cloud hums softly, giving it a good think, before nodding. “Fine. But just this once.”

Perhaps their date isn’t, well, very date-like in nature, but the both of them have plenty of fun, chatting away about everything and nothing. Cloud swears this is the most he’s said his whole life, but watching the way Zack lights up at his jokes, he determines it’s well worth whatever sore throat or hoarse voice he’ll have come morning.

As they split a small dessert with one another, the raven slides his unoccupied hand across the table and takes a smaller one into it. Again, the table of three across the room bursts into a chorus of laughter, and Cloud nervously looks over to ensure it’s not them who they’re laughing at. He finds that the redhead has smeared whipped cream across another man’s nose, the baldheaded guy wrinkling his nose up in displeasure.

“Hey, just focus on me,” Zack whispers to him, pulling aquamarine eyes back to his tanned face, “nothing to worry about.”

“Sorry,” he suddenly feels mortified, ducking his head down as he sets his spoon aside, “I just… get anxious a lot.”

The hand wrapped around his squeezes slightly, before twisting at the wrist so that their fingers become interlaced. Zack’s hands are insanely warm, as if that big heart of his also functions as a furnace. “Nothing to apologize about, either! You’re _allowed_ to feel that way. It doesn’t change how I think about you, _feel_ about you. If you ever get nervous, just take my hand, okay?”

Cloud lets out one little _heh_ and says, “you’re awfully sappy, you know that?”

“Uh-huh.” Zack takes a spoonful of cake, and holds it up for his date. As Cloud accepts it, he continues speaking. “If you let me, I can be _so_ much more sappy. Like, disgustingly so. It’ll be like when you think you’ve beat the boss, but the second health bar appears.”

“Can I work my way up to that? I just finished the tutorial of this game, though Sephiroth wasn’t quite the handholding type.”

“Yeah, sure! Play it on very easy until you get a feel for the controls, yeah? How about this, I’ll let you make all the first moves, unless you say so.”

“Sounds great.”

When they finish up, and Zack goes to pay the bill, the long-haired raven, Tseng, and his companion are already paying ahead of him. Both of the ravens exchange a greeting, before the pale blonde by Tseng’s side wraps one arm around his waist and, taking his card back from the waitress, leads him out the front door.

The other three are still hanging about, Cloud notes as his date grabs his wallet, though, when they notice that Tseng and, presumedly, his own date had left, the redhead leans back in defeat, sighing. What strange individuals.

Zack takes his hand into his and guides him to the door, holding it open for him. Winter air hits them both to the face like an open-palmed strike, and Cloud zippers up his jacket.

“Hey, if you had a motorcycle, what would you name it?”

Cloud takes a moment to smooth down his hair as best he could from the wind’s grubby fingers. “Fenrir.”

“What’s that?” The bike is a short walk down the sidewalk, especially with the brisk pace Zack is setting. He nearly complains his short legs can’t keep up, but bites his tongue to explain instead.

“It’s from an old myth in Nibelheim,” Cloud gestures to the wolf on the back of his jacket, it’s maw hung open, consuming Gaea, “Fenrir is a giant wolf said to eat the world at the end of times. Kinda been my thing for a while now, I suppose.”

“That’s pretty cool! I was just gonna name mine after a video game bike…”

He laughs at Zack’s response, a good-natured sort of thing. “Hey,” he turns to look up at the raven, cheeks heating up, though whether it was from the chill or a blush, he wasn’t quite sure, “you said I can make the first moves, yeah?”

“Mmhm!”

“So, it would be okay if I did this?” He stood up on the ends of his toes, but quickly found that, in all his five foot four glory, he wasn’t quite able to reach. Grumbling, Cloud takes his friend by the collar of his sweater, pulling him down the rest of the way, and, clumsily, their lips meet. It’s a short affair, the blonde quickly releasing his hold and backing away, but Zack catches him before he can fully make his retreat.

“Heeey, get back here,” with a soft _hup_ , the raven lifts him up like he weighs nothing, taking him into his arms and bringing him to his level, “and do that proper.”

“Well, uh, to be honest, I’ve never kissed anyone before…”

“Really? It isn’t hard, want me to teach you?”

Cloud nods, and then damn nearly purrs when Zack puts his lips back to his own.

By the time they returned to the apartment building, snow was falling full force, a full day ahead of schedule, and sticking something fierce. Zack parks his bike in his spot, pocketing his keys, and brushes some snow off from Cloud’s shoulder as they take their helmets off.

“Looks like the blizzard is early,” he says, wrapping one arm around the shorter man, “maybe it’d be best for you to just stay. I can’t make you walk home in all this.”

Cloud glanced past him, looking out the garage doors as they slowly slid shut. People were hurrying past, seeking shelter, as the winds picked up, billowing snow across the road and sidewalks of Midgar. A man stopped to lift up his kid as the gale nearly swept them off their feet before rushing towards their destination.

“I think I have to agree, but I won’t have anything to change into.” He says as he glances down at himself, finding that the snow was already beginning to melt against the fabric of his pants. Plus, jeans weren’t exactly the most comfortable thing to sleep in.

Zack waves his hand as if to dismiss the thoughts. “Psh, you can borrow some of my clothes! At the very least, you can wear one of my shirts. Or maybe Genesis’s stuff might fit better, and, if you want, you can sleep on my bed, and I’ll take the couch…”

Though he wasn’t entirely sure at what point he’d stopped listening intently, Zack hadn’t seemed to notice, or care if he had. Cissnei waves to them as they walk up to the elevator, and his friend immediately returns it before slipping his hand around Cloud’s waist. He flushes at the display, _they’re in full view_ , but she pretends she hadn’t seen it when he looks over. What a gal.

Angeal and Genesis are snuggled up on the couch when Zack swings open the door, the blonde locking it behind him as he steps in. Warmth radiates through the living area, originating from a rather grandiose electric fireplace, and Cloud allows himself a moment to bask in the welcome change of temperature.

Peeking over his boyfriend, Genesis calls out to the both of them. “You’re back! Cloud, would you like for Angeal to take you home before the blizzard sets in?”

“He’s just gonna stay the night.” Zack replies for him, grabbing a towel to put beneath the coat hanger so that their wet jackets don’t leave too much of a mess.

Though the raven is already taking his jacket from him, he adds in, “if that’s alright.”

“Of course not. Make yourself at home.” Angeal tells him as the red-brunette shifts against his side, cuddling back beneath his arm. A cat jumps down from the couch at the movement, roused from their sleep.

After they both take quick showers, Zack had jokingly proposed that they could shower together, only to receive a pillow to the face, Cloud is provided with a long-sleeved shirt that is much too large for him, but he accepts it anyways, and a pair of shorts that only fit when he draws the strings in as far as they can go.

“We’ll wash your clothes so you can get your underwear back quickly,” his friend says as he tosses their clothes into a hamper in the bathroom. “Oh shit, wait, didn’t you say finals are next week? Do you need to study?”

“Way ahead of you,” Cloud pats his messenger bag, still sitting on the barstool, “got my laptop and notes.” From the motion, the gift from Tifa starts to slide off from its position atop his bag, but he manages to catch it midfall.

From the living room, he hears Genesis, “came prepared, darling?”

“More like I grabbed it out of habit,” muttering, he and Zack take a seat on one of the matching loveseats, the raven watching curiously as he starts to open the gift. “From a friend.” He explains, “she gave it to me before I left home.”

Between the wrapping paper and the thin, white box is a notecard, which he takes a moment to read. _You always look so chilly on your way to class, so I thought you might like this! The other half of it, though, I just couldn’t resist getting for you! It fits so well!_ He pops the box open, finding a small, tissue-paper wrapped square, and a second box which he recognizes as a jewelry case.

Unfolding the tissue-paper, a navy blue scarf is revealed, decorated with pawprints and the visage of a wolf, the ends tasseled. He playfully tosses it over both his and Zack’s shoulders, eliciting a laugh as he uses it to pull him closer before reaching for the second box. It pops open to reveal a necklace, the cord made from thin strips of braided, black leather, a clasp set on the ends. Hanging in the center is a silver charm of a wolf’s head against a circular background, a ring clasped in its mouth. His eyes widen as he recognizes it from some old art in Nibelheim of Fenrir, and he wishes that he’d taken the time to open it when he’d been at Tifa’s.

“Cool! Is that, uh, Fen…” Zack took a moment, brows drawn close, before finally stumbling out: “Fenrir?”

“Mm. Lemme text Tif real quick, tell her thanks.” As he’s doing that, his friend takes the necklace, gently, from his hand to take a closer look. Genesis holds out his hand in a request to see it as well, and nods his approval. Once he’s finished, he shifts and turns slightly, “can you?”

Zack smiles and slides the necklace into place, managing to clasp it shut after an attempt or two. “It suits you,” Genesis says as Cloud glances down at it, fingers tracing the metal.

“Think so?”

“We refrain from telling lies in this household.”

Cloud actually smiles at that. Good to honest, smiles, feeling the happiest he’s known in twenty years of his life.

He ends up staying for the weekend, until the weather breaks enough that Angeal drives him home in a pickup lifted so high off the ground he feels absolutely _dwarfed_ next to it. The first thing he does when he gets to his building is head to Tifa’s apartment, thanking her profusely for her gifts, thoughtful as they were, as she smiled down at him, glad he was wearing them both. Cloud invites her over for a hangout after his final on Thursday, knowing her work schedule by heart by now, and tells her he hopes he can find a gift just as nice.

It’s after that, he walks to his own apartment and plops down onto his mattress, setting up his notes and laptop as the call rings for Cid. They study for the entirety of the remaining day, only interrupted by food, bathroom breaks, and the occasional nosy Vincent, who corrects them from time to time. “Definitely a Valentine,” Cloud jokes at one point, “you and Seph are more alike than either of you realize.”

“Don’t let him catch you saying such things.” Vincent’s voice is near threatening in tone, but he sees the smile on his lips in the back of Cid’s video as he sets a cup of tea and a coaster by his fiancé’s notes.

Though not blood, they certainly were related.

At one point their studies deviate to Cloud asking them about how they’d met, and then, later, about Vincent’s lack of a left arm. For what it’s worth, he takes it in stride, though he keeps the details vague. Both of the blondes fall asleep some undisclosed amount of time after three in the morning, Vincent ending the call for the both of them.

Finals pass without a hitch, and, after their shared exam, Cid and Cloud decide to treat themselves to a nice meal and a night of relaxation. Turns out that Cid and Vincent lived in a townhouse not far from campus, and he also learns that it’s not far from Sephiroth’s apartment when the dark-haired man points it out, sixteen floors up on the end.

“How well do you think you did?” Vincent asks as he sets a kettle on the stove, Cloud standing nervously in the entry space, unsure what to do, as Cid flops down onto the couch, facedown.

“Uh,” he shrugs off his jacket and bag, and kicks off his shoes, putting them by the door alongside the others, “well enough.”

Cid snorts. “Come on, kid, give yourself some credit! You studied harder than half the damn school. I bet you aced it.” He whistles for the dog to come close, and slips the vest off from him, “come sit, Cloud. Chaos doesn’t bite.”

Setting his things down beside the coffee table, Cloud takes a seat in a recliner by the couch’s side, and the dog immediately comes over to investigate him. He pets the shepherd along the back, though Chaos only settles down at his feet, resting his chin on one knee.

“Nervous?” The other blonde asks as he sits up properly to make space for his fiancé. Cloud looks up at him, a bit startled he’d been that easy to read. Cid nods his head down at the dog. “That’s what he’s trained to do for Vinny when he’s stressed out.”

“Oh. Service dog. Forgot.” He lets out a soft laugh, half-hearted. “I’d just assumed he helped with… you know.” There’s a gesture made towards his own left arm, but then he shuts himself up, wincing.

Vincent shakes his head, “it’s alright. He does help a bit with that, but also assists with anxiety.” A single snap of his fingers is enough to get the shepherd to move to his side instead, and he runs a hand along the black fur of the back of his head.

“Wait, you can get a service dog for anxiety?”

“Yes.”

Cloud looks like he’s just had an epiphany as he sits there half-slack jawed and wide-eyed. “No one ever told me that…” He manages to pick his jaw from the floor, shaking his head softly. “It’s always been _oh, your anxiety isn’t that bad,_ and _you can function fine enough, so clearly nothing’s wrong with you_. Ugh.”

“It can be difficult for others to understand if they’ve had no experience in the matter. Even Cid found it hard to grasp at first.”

“Anxiety had always just been… somethin’ you felt when you were nervous ‘bout like, getting that job, or having to do something new, not… I dunno, a constant state of being, I guess.” Rubbing his chin, the older blonde leans back in his seat. “But then I saw how Vinny felt, you know? Something that seems so simple to _me_ can make the person I care ‘bout most unable to breathe.”

Making one, rather wild gesture, Cloud sits straight, “exactly! I mean, I had a panic attack the other night worrying about _homework_. Homework! It was one sheet, not even worth a percent of my grade.”

From the kitchen, the kettle whistles, and Cid goes to get it. As soon as he gets up, the dog steals his place on the cushion, receiving a stern little glare from the blonde and a muttered _traitor_. Chaos merely wags his tail and settles his head against Vincent’s thigh, thin fingers scratching behind his ears.

“Perhaps it’s something worth looking into, then. I thought it was manageable, but it made a significant change to my life when I received Chaos. He was the first good thing to happen to me in a very long time.”

Watching the dog do his little dog things just immediately brought thoughts of Zack and his puppy-ish behavior to the forefront of his brain, and Cloud smiled softly. “Yeah. I get that feeling.”

_The dreams have since changed by now, drifting into more pleasant memories of his friends, his family. Zack is nowhere in sight during these dreams, he knows why and tries not to think on it for too long, but, accompanied by this ragtag group, he finds himself comforted in ways he never knew someone could be._

_Tifa slides a cup into his line of sight, smiling down at him as she does so, and tells him to take it to Cid, the older blonde sitting, propped up with a crooked arm and his chin in one palm, at a mostly empty table, gesturing animatedly to his sole companion. Vincent nurses at a drink of his own, and Cloud, once he’d come to wake, hardly recognizes the raven, skin a gray shade of pale, and somehow even thinner than how he knows him. He’s largely unbothered by the chattering man at his side as he toys with his hair, though he does eventually wave him away when the drink is sat down on the table in front of them._

_Cid takes it with a grateful nod, and gestures for Cloud to join them. There’s a moment’s hesitation, but he gives in, taking a seat across from the two of them. The conversation is long winded, about things he can’t recall in the morning, though he hears Sephiroth’s name thrown here and there, alongside curses at something called Shinra._

_Barett, who was nestled into one corner, holds a conversation with a black-haired girl, and a strange, red creature. He can’t quite catch the words, but, when the girl turns to him and calls his name with a smile on her lips, Cloud knows it’s nothing to worry about, though he has the distinct feeling she’s up to something he’s going to come to regret._

_Still, he finds himself returning to the waking world with a smile._

Awakening to frost on the bedroom window and snow slowly drifting through the outside air, early morning sunlight catching in the flakes, Cloud rolls over, or, at least, attempts to with a heavy arm over his midsection. Zack snores softly into his ear, and he shifts closer, nuzzling his nose into the crook of the raven’s neck.

“Mmrf…” He hears him rumble into his own shoulder, eyes screwing tightly shut. A kiss is placed to his neck, then jaw, and finally ending on his mouth. Slowly, blue eyes open, and look down to the blonde, a pleasant smile settling on drowsy lips. “Hey,”

“Hey,” Cloud repeats, “I figured you’d be the one waking _me_ up Christmas morning,”

At that, Zack bolts awake, sitting up in the bed so fast he causes the blankets to fly off from his boyfriend’s frame. “It’s Christmas!” With a shiver, the blonde snatches the covers back into place, and watches the other man bounce from place to place as he gathers his discarded pants from the floor, throwing them on. There’s only a break from the rush when he stops at his dresser and grabs an _absolutely_ atrocious sweater from a drawer.

He bursts out the bedroom door, still in the process of tugging his sweater as he stumbles into the living room.

“Good morning,” Genesis says from his place on the couch, nonchalant and unbothered by his sudden appearance. Angeal is cooking in the kitchen, wearing an equally as horrendous sweater, both cats rubbing against his legs though he tries to gently push one aside with a foot when he goes to take a step to the side. There’s also Sephiroth in the kitchen, a steaming mug in his hands as he leans against the counter. He’s nudged aside as well after a moment, to which he rolls his eyes and takes a spot on a loveseat.

Rubbing his bleary eyes as he follows his boyfriend out of the bedroom, Cloud looks at the silver-haired man curiously. “Why’re you here?”

Sephiroth shrugs, idly sipping at his coffee. “Vincent doesn’t wake until late. I’d much rather be here than alone with Cid for hours on end.”

“Still don’t like him?” Angeal hands the youngest roommate a serving plate, and places a pile of pancakes onto it.

“It’s not so much I don’t like him, he makes Vincent happy, after all. He is merely…”

“A lot to deal with?” Cloud yawns as he plops down next to the taller man, and slings one arm around his shoulder. Sephiroth relaxes at the touch, resting his chin onto blonde locks as he sets his drink down. “You’ll be fine at dinner. He likes you, even if he won’t admit it.”

Closing his green eyes, the silver-haired man hums. “Thank you, Cloud,” gently, long nails scrape against the back of his head as Sephiroth toys with his hair, “you are a very good friend. I’m glad we’ve remained as such.”

When Zack settles down at the table, everything set, he calls them over. “Come on, guys! Let’s eat so we can get to the presents!” Green eyes shoot open at the exclamations, and lithe fingers tapping against the back of Cloud’s skull.

“Such a child…”

“Hey! Be nice to me,” the raven pouts, though it soon further as, when the older man passes him by, he pinches a cheek, “rude.” His boyfriend then leans down and kisses the slightly-reddened skin, not that it does anything to take the frown from his lips.

Breakfast is a calm, amicable sort of affair, the conversation light and jovial as food is passed around in an orderly fashion. Genesis is the first to interrupt the atmosphere when he takes a finger and spreads a dollop of whipped cream across Sephiroth’s nose, who’d made the mistake of willingly sitting next to the brunette. Cloud then, _accidentally_ , he swears, kicks one uncovered shin, and he’s cursed as the brunette demands to know how his _little legs_ had managed to reach.

Angeal settles that argument quickly with a simple, one-word demand for silence. Though, when Zack begins his normal morning routine of lovey-dovey-ness, the bickering returns. Sephiroth, surprisingly, settles that one with a _“you two aren’t much better,”_ and Genesis frowns into his drink as the blonde beams in victory.

Once they’ve all had their fill, though it takes Zack much longer than the rest of them, voracious as always, they relocate back to the living room, and Angeal is the first to be handed a present. They take turns opening gifts, and the first empty box sat down is immediately claimed by a cat.

Someone reaches for the pile of gifts Cloud had brought, his face turning red as the wrapped box is picked up. “Money was kinda tight, so I could only get everyone one thing.” He’d been saving like a madman, but working part-time between classes didn’t pay fantastically well. “Sorry it’s nothing fantastically special…”

Genesis opens the gift, finding it’s an earring comprised of rose gold, with a chain that hangs below his jawline, ending in a single teardrop shape. By the look in his gray-blue eyes, he’s absolutely delighted, “nothing fantastically special… Cloud, this is beautiful!” Gently, he sets the jewelry back into its case, and goes to remove the earring he’s already wearing. It’s swiftly replaced, and he tucks his hair behind one ear to make a show of it.

He doesn’t stop until he’s been sufficiently complimented enough, and then he offers a sweet smile to the blonde, “see? Nothing to worry about, Cloud. You have wonderful taste.”

Next to open a gift is Sephiroth, though he becomes obstructed by Genesis swinging his feet into his lap. It’s a set of pajamas, “because you’d been complaining the other night about having nothing good to sleep in.” They’re wonderfully soft, the material silken and simple, no ridiculous patterns in sight. “Vincent helped me pick them out,”

“How’d you convince him? It’s always such an effort to get him from the house, especially at a decent hour.”

“As soon as I’d mentioned it was for you, he was already halfway out the door.’

Sephiroth laughs, a sound from deep in his chest, and throws his head back slightly, one hand moving to cover his mouth. The fit ends with a single snort that gets the rest of them laughing, and he starts all over again. Finally, with still-shaking shoulders, he manages, “that certainly sounds like him! Thank you.”

Zack is after him in line, and when he pops the lid off the box, his eyes widen in surprise. Taking the article of clothing, gently, from its confines, he unfolds it, before, prompted by Cloud’s “turn it around,” he does as told. Embroidered into the back of the leather jacket is the visage of a howling wolf, done in an art style that mimics the design to the back of his boyfriend’s own jacket. “So you look the part, driving around on your bike.”

When Genesis reaches to take it for closer inspection, he lets it go only to wrap his arms around the blonde’s slender frame. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He sways the smaller man back and forth in his embrace, before letting go just enough he can lean down to place a kiss to surprised lips. “You’re absolutely wonderful!”

He’s still stunned when the jacket is passed back into the raven’s hands, and Zack is quick to shrug it over his shoulders, “you and I are gonna look _so_ cool, riding around with our jackets!”

Once he’s properly calmed, Cloud opts to be skipped over so that Angeal can open his gift with the rest. He had to admit, out of the group, he knew his tastes the least well, but he seems pleased with the new set of kitchenware, and is quick to cut the blonde off as he starts to apologize.

“No, this is absolutely perfect.”

“He’d been complaining just this morning about some of our cooking ware being in desperate need of replacing,” the red-brunette by his side adds, “it’s like you read his mind. You’re very perceptive, dear boy, one would think you’ve known us for much longer.”

Unable and unsure of how to respond, the blonde merely nods and goes to open his own gift, this one from Sephiroth. It’s a trio of three shirts, brand-new, tags still intact, though the prices had been torn away. Cloud can’t think of a time before he’d ever worn, let alone _owned_ new clothes, aside from his jacket. Hopefully, they couldn’t see the tears pricking at his eyes.

Only a few minutes after five, Sephiroth excuses himself to the Valentine household. Slipping a bag containing a pair of presents into his arms, “for Vince and Cid,” Cloud explains and stands up on the tips of his toes to reach up in a hug. It’s accepted, and subsequently returned as best as the silver-haired man can with arms full of holiday gifts. Genesis gets the door for his best friend and walks him to his car, even offering to carry a few things for him. Must be the holiday spirit at work.

Zack is quick to grab him by the arm, and lead him towards the balcony. Snow coats the floor, and he slips his jacket around the blonde’s shoulders. Cloud breaths deeply, already catching the scent of his boyfriend’s cologne on the leather. “So, I’ve got one more gift for you,”

“That so?”

Nodding, the raven takes his hand and leads him further onto the balcony. He holds out a small box as he leans against the railing, and Cloud is taken aback by how heavy it is. Biting a predictable about rocks, he slides the lid off to find a plastic binder, filled to the brim with page after page. Thin brows draw close, aquamarine eyes turning to look up at him in question.

“It’s all about us,” Zack says, like that’s supposed to make sense, “look.” He flips open the binder, and Cloud is met with a black-and-white photo of two men, both of them looking eerily similar to both him and his boyfriend. “See? This was from a long time ago,” he points to the date at the bottom of the page, _Fair & Strife, Midgar, first class SOLDIER Zack Fair and his best friend, Shinra infantryman, Cloud Strife pose for a picture during an event, _“more than a lifetime ago.”

Cloud turns through the pages, finding documentation after photo after news article after… There’s so much of it. “How did you get all this?”

“Amazing what you can find with enough looking around! Libraries across the city had collections of old articles and what have you. I made copies!” He taps at a certain page as it’s scrolled by, “Seph might wanna know some of this too. Might help him get some peace of mind. It’s… not always an easy read, though.”

“I can imagine.”

As he skims over some of the recountings, he recognizes a few instances from his dreams, _a meteor plummeting towards them, the severed head of a monstrous woman, Sephiroth’s voice in his ear…_

He shakes his head to clear it. “Thank you, Zack. Have you read over it yet?”

“Not all of it. Was hoping we could do it together.”

“Of course.”

That night, they fall asleep, cuddled atop of one another, breathing in near sync as they read through the pages, saying things aloud that stick out to them. Periodically, one of them will stop and exclaim _“I remember that!”_ When Cloud had looked the clock last, it was past two in the morning, though the time now was a mystery.

Zack shifts, breaking their mutual silence as he runs his fingers through feathery locks, “you saw me die, huh? In your dreams, I mean.”

Cloud keeps quiet, but when the raven shifts further to look down at him, he replies with a whispered, “yes.”

“Is that why you were so scared of me for a bit?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I bet that was pretty scary.” He marks the page with a sticky note, and closes the binder with an audible _thump_. His boyfriend goes to look up to him, curious, but is quick to find himself being absconded with as the older man suddenly clasps both arms beneath him and lifts him from the mattress.

Yelping in surprise, Cloud writhes in the hold, “Zack!”

Laughter is his response, Zack swinging him around before he half-tosses him back to the bed, and flops down on top of him with an _oof_. “I’m not going anywhere for a long time, Cloud. I know we’ve only been dating for like a month now, but… I can’t imagine myself anywhere but your side. You’re my best friend,”

“You’re mine too,”

“So wipe that worried look off your face and kiss me already!”

How can he refuse such a thing? Leaning towards the raven hovering above him, he catches his lips with his own. There’s still the lingering taste of their late night snack on him, and he imagines that the same can be said for him as Zack hums into the brisk touch, pushing down against him. His wrists are captured in strong hands, tugging them above his head and into the clutch of a single hand, the other drifting down to catch the bottom of his shirt, pulling it up and over his head.

Zack parts their kiss to remove the long-sleeved shirt fully, but as soon as his lips leave Cloud’s own, the blonde, head completely devoid of thoughts and any common sense, blurts out a simple, three-word sentence.

“I love you,”

Spluttering, the man drops his hold on the shirt, and sits back on his haunches, tilting his head like a dog, “did you just- did you say-”

“Uh,” Cloud’s face is hotter than it’s ever been, and he goes to hide it in his hands only to find they’re still secured above his head by a grasp he can’t break, “depends, did you wanna hear it?”

His boyfriend breaks from his stupor and turns his surprise into laughter. “Boy did I ever! I was starting to think I was trying to move things too quickly, I wanted to tell you so bad! But I swore I’d let you make all the first moves!”

“So, what’re you waiting for then?”

Blue eyes narrow down at him, and Zack drops back down to kiss him, teeth catching his bottom lip, “I,” kiss, “love,” nip, “you.”

With Zack by his side, Cloud swore he could do damn near anything, even when his anxiety managed to get the best of him. They’d moved in together four months ago, both pitching in to rent a townhouse right across the street from the Valentine residency, their split halves of the rent no worse than their previous payments. College was right around the corner, spring semesters hovering over their heads, though Zack continuously promised him everything would be fine, he was a smart guy, there was nothing to worry about.

Ultimately, Cloud had decided to take less classes this time around, though he had qualified for a scholarship, worried that the workload may be his undoing. True to Cid’s promise, he had managed to strike two of the same classes, leaving him with only one different. Having some of his closest friends right across the street was a godsend, he decided, even if the older blonde was rather loud some mornings.

Like today.

Had Cloud already not been accustomed to waking early in the day, his typical waking hour just past seven am, he would’ve been absolutely pissed to have Cid knocking on their door at half past eight. He’s quick to get the door before it wakes Zack, finding the man standing on the other side.

“Cid? What the hell, man, it’s early.”

“Not for you, it ain’t. Come here,” the blonde shrugs his shoulder in the direction of his house and steps down the front stoop, hands tucked in his pocket, “got somethin’ you might be interested in.”

Cloud grabs his keys from the end table by the door, and slips his shoes on, locking the door behind him. Cid leads him into his garage, and he’s surprised to find Vincent still awake, though he seems barely conscious, Chaos perched by his legs like a gargoyle. He’s tugging the tarp off from a vehicle, by the looks of it, and it reveals a beat-up, though relatively new model, bike.

Grinning, Cid pats the top of the seat, “buddy of mine was gonna strip it down for parts. Didn’t wanna put the money into it when he said he could get more for the pieces. Whatcha think?”

Crouching down by the side, the younger blonde takes a good look at it. “Nothing looks too bad… what happened? Most of this looks cosmetic.”

“Previous owner had a wipeout, didn’t wanna ride it after that.”

“Well, I can certainly help you fix it up. I didn’t think you were in the market for a motorcycle.”

Cid snorts. “You kiddin’ me? Vinny can’t ride with, so I’m not interested. Isn’t that right, Vin,” he leans up to peck a kiss onto pale lips, earning a sleepy smile in return, “I grabbed it for you, but if you’re not interested, we can definitely flip it for a solid profit. Lookit her,”

He’s stopped listening at some point, aqua eyes widened in surprise, “wait, wait, you got the bike for me?”

“Mmhm.”

“I told you he was going to react like this.” Vincent says, holding his hand up. Chaos barks, seemingly in agreement.

Rolling his eyes, Cid gives him a halfhearted shrug. “Oh, go to bed, Sleeping Beauty,” he sends the raven on his way with a slight slap to the ass. Cloud splutters.

“A-at least let me pay you back what you paid for it,” the younger man insists, desperately ignoring the flush settling on his lightly-freckled cheeks, “deal?”

“Deal.” Holding out one hand, he gives him a lopsided grin, though Cloud merely scowls and squints down at the hand.

“Other hand. I saw that,” he motions to the door his fiancé had just disappeared through.

Cid throws his head back and laughs. It sounds startlingly similar to the sort of real laugh Sephiroth offers on the rare occasion. Just how much time did he spend around this family? Guy was contagious.

True to Cloud’s assessment, Fenrir, as the bike would come to be known, was a quick, easy fixer-upper. Saturday mornings, before Zack would get up, he’d slip over to the Valentine’s under the guise of studying, and would do the same Sundays whenever his boyfriend went to the gym in the afternoons. When she was ready, they rolled her out from the garage for a test drive. She ran like a dream.

Cloud had only felt so free one time before.

Zack woke up about ten, and, immediately, his boyfriend was pulling him from their house, a cup of coffee already in his hands. “Stay right here,” Cloud tells him, “and cover your eyes.” Chuckling into his drink, the raven obliges him.

When he hears the sound of a motorcycle, and one that clearly isn’t _his_ at that, his interest is immediately piqued. “Okay!” He hears the blonde call to him over the engine, and he takes his hand away from his eyes.

The view before him nearly makes him drop his coffee. Cloud’s settled astride a beautiful, black bike, his jacket on to stave off the morning breeze, Fenrir snarling as always. In the sunlight, he can see the necklace Tifa had gifted him with glinting, captivating. Rays catch in the man’s blonde locks, turning them impossibly golden, and, when he smiles up at him, aqua eyes absolutely ablaze with pride, Zack swears he’s looking at an angel.

Before long, the bike is parked alongside his own in their driveway, and the blonde climbs off, patting the seat, “say hello to _Fenrir_!”

Zack descends the front steps with a hurried pace, “when did you get this?” He looks the bike over, astounded.

“Cid bought it for repairs, it’s officially mine as of today. Got the title and everything. I owe him a few more payments, but…”

Setting his cup down on the flat spot of his own bike’s seat, the raven sweeps his boyfriend up into a hug. “This is fantastic! You owe me a ride, or twenty. One for each I’ve given you.” A solid few feet off the ground, the blonde laughs, and wraps his arms around muscled shoulders, legs resting against a strong waist.

“Of course,” brought to his level, Cloud easily places a kiss to his lips, “any time, Zack.”

He hums into the kiss, and goes to further it. They could’ve stayed like that forever, until they both remember that they’re standing outside, à la Cid whistling from across the street, followed by a swift “get a room, boys,”

Cloud drops back down to his own feet, rubbing the back of his head, meek, and the two of them head back inside, Zack’s coffee back in hand. His boyfriend holds the door open for him, so it doesn’t swing back and knock the cup from his grip, “hey, I was thinking,”

“Yeah?”

“I know it’s kinda late now, but I’ve got an idea for my bike’s name?”

“Do tell,”

“How’s _Legacy_ sound?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this in its entirety! Please leave a comment or kudos! 
> 
> And, if you're reading this, please go read this fic's kinda companion, "I Crave You in the Dark", it's so much better written and I adore it with my whole heart...


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